Israel hits Beirut as fresh strikes kill Lebanon mayor

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Written by Super User

Category: MENA

Published: 16 October 2024

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BY RACHEL HAGAN

BEIRUT - Israel has launched airstrikes on Beirut for the first time in five days, while a city mayor has been been killed during a volley of intense strikes on southern Lebanon – in what the country’s prime minister has condemned as "intentionally” targeting a municipal council meeting.

The strikes come despite US concerns about rising death tolls and fears of all-out war in the region as Israel targets Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and is at war with Hamas – also supported by Tehran – in Gaza.

Israel’s army confirmed that it hit the city of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon, where mayor mayor Ahmed Kahil was among the five dead. Eyewitnesses in Nabatieh described scenes of “frantic terror” to the BBC as multiple airstrikes hit within 30 minutes.

Strikes continued across Lebanon, including in the eastern Bekaa Valley and Nabatiyeh, in southern Lebanon, where the Israeli military said it targeted Hezbollah command centers and weapons facilities that had been embedded in civilian areas. Hezbollah launched more than 90 projectiles towards Israel on Wednesday, wounding four civilians, according to Israel Rescue Services.

During an assessment of the situation in Israel's north on Wednesday, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel was gleaning intelligence from their capture of Hezbollah militants that was significantly weakening Hezbollah's ability to launch attacks. "We will conduct negotiations under fire, I said that on the first day, I said it in Gaza, I said it here - this is our tool," he told soldiers operating in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli army also said it conducted a strike on an underground Hezbollah weapons stockpile in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh. "Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including advancing warnings to the population in the area," the Israeli military said.

Israeli navy forces, meanwhile, struck dozens of Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, in cooperation with troops on the ground, Israel's military added.

On the Nabatieh strikes, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati accused Israel of "intentionally targeted a meeting of the municipal council".

Some Western countries have been pushing for a ceasefire between the two neighbours, as well as in Gaza, though the United States says it continues to support Israel and was sending an anti-missile system and troops.

Mr Mikati questioned the use of demanding a ceasefire from the UN, "if all the countries of the world are unable to deter a blatant aggression against the Lebanese people”.

"What solution can be hoped for in light of this reality?" he said.

Lebanon‘s Civil Defense said 15 bodies had been recovered from the rubble of a building in the southern Lebanese town of Qana. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. Israel said the target was Jalal Mustafa Hariri, Hezbollah's commander in charge of the Qana area.

Qana has long been associated with civilian deaths after Israeli strikes during previous conflicts with Hezbollah. In 1996, Israeli artillery shelling on a United Nations (UN) compound housing hundreds of displaced people in Qana killed at least 100 civilians, including four UN peacekeepers.

On Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the US had expressed its concerns to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's administration on the recent strikes.

“There are specific strikes that it would be appropriate for Israel to carry out, but when it comes to the scope and nature of the bombing campaign that we saw in Beirut over the past few weeks, it’s something that we made clear to the government of Israel we had concerns with and we are opposed to,” Mr Miller also told reporters Tuesday.

The last time Beirut was hit was on 10 October, when two strikes near the city centre killed 22 people and brought down entire buildings in a densely populated neighbourhood.

Hezbollah and Israel started trading near-daily cross-border fire in the wake of Israel launching its war in Gaza in retaliation for the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.

Israel’s retaliatory air and ground assault in Gaza has killed more than 42,000 people, according to the latest update from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza and has led to more than 90 per cent of the territory’s population being displaced.

More than 1,400 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel stepped up its campaign against Hezbollah last month. More than 2,000 people have died in the country since the 7 October attack.

Hezbollah has a strong presence in southern Beirut but it is also home to a large number of civilians and people unaffiliated with the militant group.

Israel’s military posted an evacuation warning early Wednesday on X, formerly Twitter, ahead of the strike, saying it was targeting one building in the Haret Hreik neighbourhood.

“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including advancing warnings to the population in the area,” the Israeli military said.

Israel has also come under scrutiny because of its dealings with the UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL in south Lebanon. Since an Israeli ground operation against Hezbollah militants began on 1 October, UNIFIL positions have come under fire and two Israeli tanks burst through the gates of one of its bases, the UN says. Five peacekeepers have been injured.

European Union countries that contribute have no intention of pulling back despite Israeli calls to do so, Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said.

Sixteen EU countries, including Austria, contribute to UNIFIL and the recent incidents have sparked widespread alarm among European governments.

Israel kills at least 50 in Gaza, tanks deepen raid in the north

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Written by Super User

Category: MENA

Published: 15 October 2024

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By Nidal Al-Mughrabi

CAIRO - Israeli military strikes killed at least 50 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip as Israeli forces tightened their squeeze around Jabalia in the north of the enclave on Tuesday, amid fierce battles with Hamas-led fighters.

Palestinian health officials said at least 17 people were killed by Israeli fire near Al-Falouja in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza's eight historic refugee camps, while 10 others were killed in Bani Suhaila in eastern Khan Younis in the south when an Israeli missile struck a house.

Earlier on Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike destroyed three houses in the Sabra suburb of Gaza City, and the local civil emergency service said they recovered two bodies from the site, while the search continued for 12 other people who were believed to have been in the houses at the time of the strike.

Eight others were killed when a house was struck in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.

Later on Tuesday, the Gaza health ministry said one doctor was killed when he tried to help the people wounded by Israeli strikes in Al-Falouja in Jabalia. It added that several medics were wounded when their ambulance came under Israeli fire in the northern and southern Gaza Strip.

Jabalia has been the focus of an Israeli offensive for more than 10 days, with troops returning to areas of the north that came under heavy bombardment in the early months of the year-long war.

The operation has raised concerns among Palestinians and U.N. agencies that Israel wants to clear residents from the north of the crowded enclave, a charge it has denied. Residents said Israeli forces destroyed dozens of houses in the past 10 days.

The United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday the Israeli military appeared to be "cutting off North Gaza completely from the rest of the Gaza Strip."

"Amid intense ongoing hostilities and evacuation orders in northern Gaza families are facing unimaginable fear, loss of loved ones, confusion, and exhaustion. People must be able to flee safely, without facing further danger," Adrian Zimmerman,
ICRC Gaza head of sub-delegation, said in a statement.

"Many, including the sick and disabled, cannot leave, and they remain protected under international humanitarian law – all possible precautions must be taken to ensure they remain unharmed. Every person displaced has the right to return home in safety," he added.

The Israeli military's humanitarian unit, Cogat, which overseas aid and commercial shipments to Gaza, said in a statement on Tuesday that the operations in Jabalia were targeting terrorist infrastructure and operatives embedded inside civilian areas. It said it was facilitating humanitarian and in particular medical aid to residents.

Hamas denies it embeds its operatives amongst civilians.

JABALIA ENCIRCLED

The Israeli military has now encircled the Jabalia camp and sent tanks into nearby Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun towns, with the declared aim of stamping out Hamas fighters who are trying to regroup there.

The Israeli military has told residents to leave their homes and head to safety in southern Gaza. Palestinian and U.N. officials say there was no place safe in Gaza.
Hamas' armed wing said fighters were engaged in fierce battles with Israeli forces in and around Jabalia.

Zimmerman also urged for health facilities in the north to be protected, saying hospitals there were struggling to provide medical services.

Gaza's health ministry said the army ordered the three hospitals operating there to evacuate but medical staffers said they were determined to continue their services even though they are overwhelmed by the growing number of casualties.

Cogat said in recent days it had facilitated the transfer of 33 patients, medical staff and accompanying personnel from the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north to functioning facilities elsewhere in Gaza.

It said it has also provided 68,650 litres of fuel to hospitals and coordinated the delivery of 800 blood transfusion units.

Ismail Al-Thawabta, the director of the Hamas-run Gaza government media office, said Israel was trying to give a misleading impression and that its forces had been preventing ambulance and civil emergency teams from recovering the bodies of dozens of people from the streets.

Israel "aims to completely destroy the health system and hospitals," Thawabta said, adding that Israel's military has maintained a siege on the region for more than 170 consecutive days, closing all humanitarian access points.

On Monday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the level of civilian casualties in northern Gaza.

The northern part of Gaza is home to well over half the territory's 2.3 million people and hundreds of thousands of residents were forced to flee their homes amidst heavy bombing in the first phase of Israel's assault on the territory.

Around 400,000 people remained, according to United Nations estimates.

Israel launched the offensive against Hamas after the militant group's Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage to Gaza, by Israeli tallies. More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the offensive so far, according to Gaza's health authorities.

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What is the state of aid in Gaza? Key figures after a year of conflict

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Written by Super User

Category: MENA

Published: 15 October 2024

Hits: 504

By David Ainsworth, Devex.com - 07 October 2024

A year after Hamas attacks precipitated Gaza into a state of war, conflict is still ongoing in the region. How successfully is aid reaching those at risk? Devex breaks down the key figures.

One year ago, the Gaza-based militant organization Hamas launched a cross-border attack on Israel, which resulted in about 1,200 deaths.

That assault precipitated a counterattack that has cost tens of thousands of lives in Gaza, displaced nearly the entire population of 2.1 million, and left many at risk of hunger and disease. The ensuing war now threatens to broaden into a regional conflict between Israel and other countries, including Lebanon and Iran.

For a year, international agencies have been trying to get humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza, but have been largely prevented from doing so by Israel. To mark the first anniversary of the conflict, we looked at some of the key figures.

Over 41,000

At least 41,000 people have been killed so far in Gaza in the conflict, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. More than 96,000 have been injured. Around 700 Palestinians have also been killed in the nearby West Bank, and 1,000 more in Israel.

Around 1.9 million people have been internally displaced, out of a total population of 2.1 million.

More than 1,200 Israelis have also been killed, most in the initial assault on Oct. 7, 2023.

$1.79 billion

The amount spent on aid to the occupied Palestinian territory in 2024, according to UNOCHA, which launched a flash appeal at the start of the war. Of this, $1.7 billion has been contributed via the appeal, with the rest outside it.

But those figures have not been sufficient. In 2024, UNOCHA estimates that it needs $3.42 billion of total funding, meaning that its appeal is currently only 49.5% funded.

In 2023, a total of $1.83 billion was committed, bringing the amount since the start of the war to $3.62 billion.

Of the amount contributed to the humanitarian response plan this year, $336 million came from the United States, and another $228.5 million from the United Arab Emirates.

Other top donors include:

- The European Commission: $175.2 million

- Germany: $113.2 million.

- Japan: $60.3 million.

- France: $59.3 million.

- Saudi Arabia: $58.6 million.

- United Kingdom: $48 million.

- Qatar: $45.8 million.

- Private donors: $44 million.

96%

The percentage of people in Gaza facing acute food insecurity. Of this, around 22% of the population are facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity — the highest possible level, also known as famine — while another 33% are at an emergency level, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, a consortium of international organizations and experts who rank food insecurity.

This places the territory at high risk of famine, although there has not been a formal declaration of famine.

302

The number of aid workers killed since October 2023, according to the Aid Worker Security Database. Of these, 295 — all but seven — were Palestinian nationals.

The war in Gaza accounts for almost three-quarters of the 421 aid worker deaths in the last 12 months. Chiefly as a result of Gaza, 2024 looks likely to be the most deadly year on record for aid workers. Last year, 2023, currently holds the record.

Over 30,000

The number of employees working at UNRWA, the United Nations agency providing the largest humanitarian response in Gaza.

UNRWA has faced controversy over the course of the war. At one point, 16 countries withheld funding from UNRWA over accusations that its staff were involved in the initial attack on Israel. All but the United States has now restored funding.

156

The number of trucks that entered Gaza carrying aid on Oct. 1, according to the Israeli government, which controls the land border. Even before the war, 500 trucks of aid crossed the border daily, and at least this number is now needed.

$230 million

The amount spent on a floating pier designed to get aid into Gaza. The pier was constructed despite concerns from the U.S. Agency for International Development about its potential effectiveness. It was operational for just 20 days and fed less than a third of the people it was intended to feed.